Christopher Ward (no relation to Artemus that I know of) in his book on the Revolution cites the ‘Spitfire’ as being a galley that also served at Providence. Perhaps it was one of those floating batteries with oars that you showed a picture of? He also cites the 68-gun ‘Somerset’ as being in on the bombardment of the redoubt.

Ward also mentions another general, the 70-year-old Brigadier Seth Pomeroy. At 70 he was not in the chain of command, but gave freely of his advice. It was said that he and Putnam were the two that successfully argued for a redoubt on Breeds Hill. Pomeroy on a horse decided to dismount and walked across Charleston Neck out to the scene of the action while it was under fire so as not to get the horse killed since it was borrowed. He fought in the ranks at the redoubt. Later during the fallback from the top of Breeds Hill he walked backwards slowly while facing the Brit advance holding his shattered musket.

Putnam as you implied was not general officer material. But what a hell of a soldier he was. They claim he rode 100 miles in eight hours for the Battle of Lexington. He was at the Battle of Chelsea Creek before Breeds Hill. Later in the war he was at Umawaqua (spelling?), Connecticut’s Valley Forge, and quelled a mutinous regiment by himself by talking to them quietly. And the story of his escape from the Brits at Greenwich by riding at a gallop down ‘Breakneck Hill’ has been repeated 100 times in Hollywood Westerns – he did it at 60. His exploits in the French&Indian War are also the stuff of a separate epic. He was at Montreal and Havana. He was almost burned at the stake by the Caughnawaga Mohawks. My favorite story is the one of his “powderkeg duel” with an arrogant British major. True or not, what a story!!!